Abstract: Visual anticipation is the ability to make accurate predictions from partial or incomplete sources of visual information. The paradigms of visual anticipation include the classical and expert- novices types. The classical paradigm refers to the following processing mechanism. Infants are instructed to watch a series of pictures in the darkness. These pictures were showed on the computer screen and appearing interchangeably on the left or right side of the screen. Researchers expect infants to learn on a fixed rule, namely, to judge desirably on the following occasion: when a picture shows up one time on the left, it is sure to appear on the right the next time; when a picture shows up one time on the right side, it is sure to appear on the left the next time. By repeatedly doing so, anticipations can be shaped inside by infants and their speed of perception can be boosted. The expert- novices paradigm is underpinned by a number of evidence from the sport psychology research. This paradigm selects expert and novice sport players respectively in terms of criteria proposed by expert and novice subjects. These players are labeled as the expert group and the novice group. Then they are asked to perform relevant tasks anticipated, such as to predict the contingent position for the ball to arrive at in accordance with the posture the opponent takes at the moment of shooting it. There are mainly three kinds of visual anticipation: size and location anticipation of an object, structure visual anticipation of an object and goal visual anticipation of behavior. Individuals can make use of visual information to predict certain properties of an object, for instance, location and size of an object which is held in hand. Besides, they can also apply visual anticipation to the structure of an object. Researchers asked infants aged between five and fifteen months to grasp small balls in groups of four, which are much similar in shape and size but different in structure. Two small balls made of hard plastic are stiff in structure whereas the other two small balls made of supple plastic are structurally soft. Infants’ power of grasp is assessed before they touch these small balls for the first time. Individuals can also employ visual information to predict the targets of action, which are referred to as distinct functional target position of an object when it is used by an individual to carry out an action. For example, at the time when you pick up a cup of water for a drink, the functional target positioning of the cup is at your mouth; likewise, when you take out your cell phone to give a call, the functional target positioning of the cell phone is at your ear. The neural mechanism of visual anticipation takes the ventral and dorsal stream of the nerve system as the core, in which the ventral stream is responsible for the behavioral perception under specific situation whereas the dorsal stream is relevant to the visual guidance of action. The double-channel system of visual anticipation ought to emphasize the impact of interaction between the ventral and the dorsal stream of the nerve system. This system is founded on the mechanism which is as follows: the ventral stream of the nerve system is responsible for the behavior perception under particular situations while the dorsal stream of the nerve system is related to the visual guidance of action. Later and further study after the previous one reveals that the ventral stream of the nerve system is relevant to the situation-related support such as choice of motion mode whereas the dorsal stream of the nerve system is associated to the controling rules such as control of motion. These two nerval circuits mentioned above exhibit varying influence on experts and novices, in which the ventral stream of the nerve system is more essential to novices while the dorsal stream of the nerve system is more critical to experts. On the other hand, the nerval basis of visual anticipation is also involved in the parahippocampal cortex, the retrosplenial cortex, the bilateral orbitalfrontal cortex, and the central-part, dorsolateral and ventrolateral frontal cortexes, among which the parahippocampal cortex and the retrosplenial cortex are in relation to the processing procedures of the contextual links, the bilateral orbital frontal cortex is responsible for processing of associative information and the frontal-cortex relevant cerebral areas are chiefly in charge of preparation and control of the behavioral responses. Future research should explore more deeply the relation of the dorsal stream and ventral stream of the nerve system, study further on the categorization of visual anticipation, research into visual anticipation but with an ecological approach, detect the neural foundations of visual anticipation from the perspective of neural network and examine the impact of visual anticipation on the behavior and action of infants.

Key words: visual expectations, infants, adult athletes, neural mechanism, dual channel system

摘要： 视觉预期是一种运用视觉信息的部分资源和先行资源对即将发生的事件进行预测的能力。为了人们更加清楚地认识视觉预期的内在加工过程，同时也有助于国内外研究者更为科学深入地探讨这种自上而下的加工，本文主要从婴幼儿和成人运动员两方面来阐述视觉预期的相关研究。首先从婴幼儿对物体相关属性和行为目标的视觉预期两方面探讨了视觉预期的类型，然后论述了成人视觉预期的神经机制。最后，指出今后的研究应加强视觉预期相关技术在临床诊断中的应用，注重环境在视觉预期中的作用，从神经网络角度研究视觉预期的神经基础。

关键词: 视觉预期, 婴幼儿, 成人运动员, 神经机制, 双通路系统